


Town of Leaves

by kettwurst



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Eldritch, Horror, Monster Hunting Trio, Multi, Murder Mystery, totally not inspired by my recent twin peaks rewatch naahhh, vague yet menacing government agency AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:08:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25404370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kettwurst/pseuds/kettwurst
Summary: Hawkins, 1992. After the bizarre death of a high school senior, Agent Wheeler and Researcher Byers of the Department of the Anomalous & Occult (DAO) are sent to Hawkins, IN to find out just what happened, making unlikely connections along the way.
Relationships: (only slightly) - Relationship, Jonathan Byers & Steve Harrington & Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	Town of Leaves

"C‘mon, guys, wait up! I don‘t wanna be left behind", Dustin shouted while trampling through the damp, fresh leaves and foliage slowing down his tempo.

"Then stop being such a fucking slowpoke, Dustin, I don‘t wanna get caught in the daylight! This is our chance to raid the old retirement home before it gets torn down", Max barked from the distance.

  
"Well if you waited I could – God damnit, fuck", Dustin muttered. A pesky bramble vine entangled his legs, slightly digging its thorns into the skin. He had made the, quite frankly, horrible decision to wear shorts: During the day, the remnants of summer still carried a slight heat, but once the sun went down, fall was in full force. The smell of damp leaves and mud were already in the air. And somehow he got convinced to explore the now abandoned retirement home with Lucas and Max.

  
"Sorry, brambles", he mumbled while cutting himself free from his spiky captor. He was miserable, freezing, left behind, and now covered in scratches from knee to ankle. _Great_.

  
Luckily, he could spot the shine of Lucas‘ flashlight throught the foliage of the forest and hear him bickering with Max about something, like always. Picking up pace, he moved towards a clearing that was on track to the bright barrel of the flashlight. As he moved towards the small clearing, the feeling of dread washed down his back. He was very scared, even though he hated that he had to admit that – He was turning 18 soon, an adult in many regards (not all, but still), and no stupid building had the right to spook him that much.

As he approached the clearing, subtle moonlight mixed with the stark light coming from his left hand. At last, he could see outside of the circle of the flashlight, a feeling of security returning to him. With a bit more confidence, he pointed the flashlight at the clearing.

The stench hit him.

And then he saw the body.

_̶̢̹͈̖̰̰̻̪̰̝͈̅͒̈́̾̉͒̍͑́̕͝ͅ_̵̡͓̳̈́̉̊̑̈́̈́́̉̊̀̽̕_̸̪͇̲͇̀̈́̐̃͘̕͝_̷̫̹̘̺͚͋͛̓͝ͅ*̶͓̍̈́+̸̧̱̻̥͂̈́̏̓̚^̷̦̊

"What do you mean, ‘We found a dead body‘?"

Honestly, Steve was fucking done with the day (or night, more accurately). It was already a kind of stressful shift, with him being the only one at the station – Sunday to Monday was normally the least busy night, except for noise complaints, which Steve already had three of. He was not up for the kids‘ shenanigans.

To be honest, it has only happened one time that they tried to prank him, emphasis on tried, when he was new to the force. He got Hop to chew them out for misuse of the emergency line, and after that, they didn‘t even dare to think about doing something like that again – Hopper‘s menacing energy was just too scary for them to consider it.

"Steve, we‘re not kidding", Dustin said, "Please, we really aren‘t, you have to come."

"Dude, c‘mon, do you really want to get roasted by Hop again so badly? Class 1 demeanor and all that jazz? I‘m really not up for it", he grumbled into the phone.

Dustin‘s voice grew more desperate. "Like I already said. We. Are. Not. Kidding. We found a mangled… person in the forest south of town, between the lake and the abandoned retirement home!"

  
Steve pondered for a moment. It did sound like a joke – this was Hawkins, murders didn‘t really happen here. At all. The last one happened in 1982 and was the result of a domestic dispute – years ago, years before he even started at the station.  
But he also knew that Dustin‘s voice normally reversed to the pitch he had when he was a 14 year old when he lied, but this wasn‘t the case. He sounded dead serious. Which is not something that Dustin did often.  
Still, he couldn‘t really believe it.

  
"Aight", Steve sighed, "I‘m gonna come, don‘t worry. The payphone near Turnpike Hill, right? "

  
"Yes, that o- will you shut up? I‘m tryin- Lucas says to hurry!"

  
Disgruntled, Steve stood up, picked up the car keys and his jacket from the hooks at the door, got into the station-owned pickup truck, and made his way south of town.

These kids, he thought, shaking off the possibility that they did really find a dead person.

_̶̢̹͈̖̰̰̻̪̰̝͈̅͒̈́̾̉͒̍͑́̕͝ͅ_̵̡͓̳̈́̉̊̑̈́̈́́̉̊̀̽̕_̸̪͇̲͇̀̈́̐̃͘̕͝_̷̫̹̘̺͚͋͛̓͝ͅ*̶͓̍̈́+̸̧̱̻̥͂̈́̏̓̚^̷̦̊

As Dustin, Max and Lucas led him through the underbrush of the forest, Steve slowly realized that this was very likely not a prank.

The kids were distraught when he picked them up at the payphone, Dustin being especially pale. No talking, no bickering, no arguments about whatever nerd stuff they were into currently. Just silence.

Dread was beginning to fill Steve. Despite having been on the force for over three years now, he has only ever seen a dead body twice. Both were old people who died in their home, and he was only there to get the doctor‘s approval on the record that, no, there was no foul play involved and they were just old people who died in the comfort of being surrounded by their loved ones.

They both looked like they were sleeping, maybe a bit exhausted. Even peaceful, you could say.

Which made him feel an intense terror for what was about to come.

"It-It‘s up ahead, right there", stuttered Dustin, while pointing at a quaint clearing some 20 feet away.

Steve nodded, a bit shaken up, and went ahead to the clearing.

Before he could even see anything, a foul, sickly-sweet stench hit him. And he realised that, yeah, there actually was corpse like 16 feet from him.

Despite the first signs of dawn coming from the distance, Steve still needed his flashlight to illuminate the scene sprawled out in front of him.

At first, he didn‘t even really recognise the big chunks of meat in front of him as a person. It was discolored, now having a brown-blueish hue to it. The skin looked like it was expanded to its fullest, uncomfortably stretched.

Liquid was oozing out of the clumsy cuts that were made to seperate what was once a living, breathing person into four pieces. In front of him were two legs, haphazardly slashed from the torso that was laying behind them. Were they even cut? The streaks of flesh coming from the part where the thighs were ripped off were stringy and disheveled, the opposite of a clean cut.

"Holy fuck", Steve managed to mutter. Despite that primal lizard brain part of his consciousness telling him to get as far away as quick as possible, Steve carefully trodded through the damp earth and fresh leaves already covered in dew to get a better look at the torso.

Its stomach area was disgustingly swollen. So much that it looked like it could burst any second now. It was not a consistently enlarged, but rather lumpy, some areas being stretched out more than others. The upper part of the torso was rather dainty and in stark contrast with the horribly inflated and distroted stomach.

One arm was still attached, the other one was laying about 2 feet above the body, having presumably being ripped out in a similar manner as the legs and the head.

Despite the foul smell burning his eyes, Steve could see that it was the body of a woman – there were breasts – but when he looked further to maybe see a face of someone he could recognize, he was only greeted by the harsh, cold forest ground and long strips of muscle sprawling out from the top of the torso. Parts of throat anatomy that he didn‘t recognize and a bit of spine peeked out between the fleshy tendrils surrounding them.

It was a sight he was sure he would never forget.

**Author's Note:**

> well, hiya! this is my first ever fic, so please bare with me :)
> 
> what to expect:  
> \- vague, yet menacing government agency au  
> \- murder mystery babyyyy  
> \- lots of GORE (tw) and horror  
> \- quality time spent between our fav monster hunting trio  
> \- maybe some smooching down the line????  
> \- who knows


End file.
